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UNIVERSITY CELEBRATES 15 YEARS OF UNIQUE SERVICE MANAGEMENT PROGRAMMES

Wednesday 3 August 2006

Attendees at the Service Management Conference

On 28 July 2006, the University of Buckingham held a one-day programme on the theme, Profitable growth through Customer R3 - Retention, Repurchase and Referrals, in celebration of 15 years of education and research in the management of services - Buckingham's unique expertise.

The University's COO, Mr Julian Lovelock, opened the proceedings with an overview of the Business school and its various achievements. While some universities offer specialist programmes in hotel management, tourism, transportation, retail, etc., there is no University other than Buckingham that offers a generic programme in the management of services.

The Vice-Chancellor, Dr Terence Kealey, provided a macro view of how the global economy is shifting, and the Programme Director of Service Management, VS Mahesh, spoke on the conference theme of customer retention, repurchase and referral based on extensive research carried out at the University with support from major corporations and public services. The Lean Service Guru, John Bicheno, another veteran at the University, dealt with the five principles of Lean thinking as applicable to services.

Gordon Stoddart, a distinguished alumnus of the Service Management programme and currently Director of Innergy, presented a case that demonstrated how an organisation achieved a dramatic turnaround by generating commitment and buy-in from all employees.

A presentation by Neil Whitaker, Head of Local Business Support at Barclays Gadbrook Park contact centre in Cheshire, detailed the simple and humane principles of their fitness and well being programme, and led the audience to understand how and why they won the European call centre of the year award in 2005.

Participants, including alumni, drawn from organisations in the UK and abroad enjoyed the day. It was "the most enjoyable and useful single day training I've attended," commented Ian Plenderleith, FD of United Utilities, Estonia.

Report by VS Mahesh and the Web Team